Behrampore, July 23: A 12-year-old girl died today of anthrax, a debilitating cattle-borne disease that has also laid low 32 persons in two Murshidabad villages about 245 km from Calcutta.

Madina Khatun, who was infected after eating the flesh of an afflicted animal, died in her house at Dakshin Garibpur village. The district health administration has sent a team to the two villages, Ambarpur and Dakshin Garibpur, under Domkol police station to stop the spread of the disease.

Domkol is the constituency of animal resources minister Anisur Rehman.

“On June 20, seven persons from Ambarpur arrived at the health centre at Domkol (with symptoms of anthrax). The next day, a medical team was sent to the village and we found nine more suffering from the same condition,” said district chief medical officer of health Bijon Mondol. They are being treated with antibiotics.

While health department sources said none of the patients had been admitted to hospitals or health centres as anthrax is infectious, doctors said they had refused to be admitted.

Mondol said health workers were visiting each household from which a complaint of the disease has come to ensure that the prescribed medicines were being taken.

In Ambarpur, of the 16 affected persons, six were children below 10. Five men and five women were also suffering. The health workers who conducted a survey said the affected persons belonged to 12 families.